A couple of observations from talking to a couple of my clients from last year and visiting some of their gardens…

One mentioned the white nylon netting used for their trellises had developed some tears over the winter. What I did in my garden was to push the netting up to the bar at the top of the trellis and then tied the netting to the bar. As a result there’s very little for wind to catch and for ice to form on which are the two likeliest cause of tears. I prefer tying the netting to taking it off the frame completely, because it’s easier and the netting tangles easily if removed from the frame.

Trellis- In Season

Netting- Prepped for Winter

At another client’s house I noticed all the garden debris (dead plants, that is) had been left in their beds over the winter. You should always clean up the debris from your garden at the end of the growing season. This is primarily important because many garden pests will survive the winter in this garden debris. Also, the sooner you get last year’s dead plants into you compost pile, the sooner it will become compost (You do have a compost  pile, right?).

On another site visit I saw a client had tied some of their tomatoes to the trellis. Some plants will naturally twine their way through the trellis netting and you don’t need to do anything to encourage them. Tomatoes, unfortunately are not one of those.

Weaving Tomatoes Through a Trellis

You need to weave them through the netting as they grow. Tomatoes have a certain amount flexibility so bending them is possible, although if you let the vines get to long and need to bend them too much, you can break the vines. Don’t get too concerned if you do that though, I broke  a number of vines last year and I still harvested over 300 lbs of tomatoes.

I’ve found a couple of great new recipes using my garden produce. One is African Sweet Potato and Peanut Soup and the other is Vegetarian “Meatballs”. Both will on my Recipe page later today.

Sweet Potato Soup with Peanuts and African Spices

And in the most exciting news of the year…I’m putting my first seeds outside in my garden this weekend. Peas, Lettuces, Arugula, Spinach, Carrots, and Beets. Hooray!!